Improvement in needles for sewing-machines



UNITED STATES;V PATENT OEEIGE.`

EDWIN STRAIN7 or NEWTON, MASSACHUSETTS.

IMPROVEMENT IN vminoras FOR sewlNe-mAcHlNes.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 112,980, dated March21, 1871.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, EDWIN STRAIN, of Newton, in the county of Middlesexand State of Massachusetts, h ave invented certain Improvements inSewing-Machine Needles, of which Ithe following is a full, clear, andexact description, reference being had to the accompanying drawing,making part of this specification, in which- Figures l, 2, 3, and 4 areside elevations of sewin g-machine needles constructed in accordancewith my present invention. Fi s. 5 and 6 are front elevations of thesame. 1ig. 7 is a side elevation of one of my improved needles,representing the relative positions ofthe thread to the slit or openingin the eye during the various stages in the operation of sewing.

To facilitate the operation of threading a sewing-machine needle, and topreventthe es cape of the thread therefrom, is the object of myinvention, which consists in a sewing-machine needle provided with astraight slit or opening communicating with the eye and inclined to theaxis or center of the needle, the upper corner of the lower side or wallof the slit and the lower corner of the upper side or wall thereof beingbeveled or cut away, so thatA the needle, in entering or leaving thecloth or other material to be sewed, will be prevented from catchinginto and injuring the material, the needle being threaded with greaterease, and the possibility of the thread escaping therefrom beingentirely avoided.

To enable others skilled in the art to understand and use my invention,I will proceed to describe the manner in which I have carried it out.

In the said drawing, a represents the shank of a sewing-machine needle;b, its point, and c its eye. Through the side of the needle, andcommunicating with the eye c, is formed a straight opening or slit, d,the direction of which is inclined to the center or axis of the needle,as indicated by the acute'angle l m n, Figs. 1 and 3. The upper side orwall, o p, of the slit d is beveled off or cut away at its lower corner,p, so as to be situated rather nearer the center of the needle than thelower end, s, of the lower side or wall, I' s, of the slit, whereby theneedle is prevented from catching and injuring the material as it passesinto it. The lower side or wall, I s, is also beveled off or cut away atits upper corner, r, which is situated slightly nearer the axis of theneedle than the upper end, o, of the upper side or wall, o p, to preventthe needle from catching as it leaves the material. The upper corner, r,of the wall r s terminates at a point on a line with or a trifle abovethe line of the upper side or top of the eye c, and the lower corner, p,of the wall o p terminates at a point on a line with or a trifle belowthe line of the bottom or lower side of the eye c, thus making theopening in a vertical direction to equal or exceed that of the height ofthe eye c, the ends l of the slit or opening el extending to or beyondits top and bottom, by which construction the needle may not only bereadily threaded, but the thread, after having passed through the slitinto the eye, cannot escape therefrom when the needle is performing itsoffice.

In addition to the abovementioned advantages resulting from the use ofmy improved needle, the operator may employ thread of various sizes-sayfrom Nos. 30 to 120-in one and the same-sized needle without thepossibility of the thread escaping.

The straight slit or opening d may leadinto the eye cfrom the right sideof the front ofthe long groove, as shown, the direction of the slitbeing such that the thread will occupy the same relative positionthereto as that shown in Fig. 7-that is to say, the direction of theslit or opening d, if made on the right of the front of the groove, Fig.3, must be parallel to that made in a needle on the left of the front ofthe groove, Fig. l; otherwise the thread would be liable to escape fromthe eye o. I prefer, however, to have the slit enter the eye on the leftof the front of the long groove, as the corners p and r can be moreconveniently beveled or cut away, as required.

It is evident that my improvement Inay be adopted in the construction ofmost or all of the different sewing-machine needles now in use-forinstance, those `having a long deep groove on one side and with a shortshallow groove on the other, or those having a groove on one side only,with the eye conntersunk on the side opposite to that having the groove.

Claim.

What I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent,s-` A needle having a diagonal straight slit or opening, (I,communicating with the eye c, and inclined to the axis of the needle,the corners p and i' of the slit being beveled off and ex- Vtending toor beyond the top and bottom of the eye, substantially in the manner andfor the purposes set forth. l

Witness inyhand this 25th day of January, 1871.

.EDWIN STRAIN.

fitnesses W. J. CAMBRIDGE, P. E. TEsoHEMAcHER.

